File:NASA’s Webb Identifies the Earliest Strands of the Cosmic Web (53009732947).png

English: Cosmic Webb, meet cosmic web.

Rather than being scattered randomly, galaxies actually gather in clusters and threads stretching across the universe, punctuated by vast voids. This is known as the cosmic web. Now the Webb Telescope has discovered an early strand of this web — 10 galaxies that existed 830 million years after the big bang.

Here, you can see the 10 galaxies marked by 8 white circles in a diagonal, thread-like line. (Two of the circles contain more than one galaxy). Together, these interconnected galaxies form a structure that extends 3 million light years!

The group is also anchored by a luminous quasar — a galaxy with an active, supermassive black hole at its core. (The quasar appears in the middle of the cluster of 3 circles on the right side.) Scientists believe this collection of galaxies may eventually become a galaxy cluster.

Learn more: go.nasa.gov/444TUTP

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Feige Wang (University of Arizona), with image processing by Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Image description: A black field speckled with a variety of galaxies of numerous shapes and sizes. The galaxies are white, yellow, blue and red. Red is the predominant galaxy color in the field, indicating very distant galaxies. Eight small white circles mark the position of 10 galaxies (two circles contain more than one galaxy). The 10 galaxies are arranged in a diagonal, thread-like line from the bottom left to the top right. Most of the white circles are separated. However, there is a pair of circles grouped together on the bottom left, as well as a cluster of three circles on the right side of the image. A quasar called J0305-3150 appears in the middle of that right cluster. Within the quasar’s circle, there are strong red diffraction spikes radiating out from a white core. Galaxies in the other circles are seen only as red specks.